Effect of Using Digital Media for Language Learning on Reduction of Anxiety and Boost of Proficiency among Immigrating Students: A Case Study

With its constant advancements, technology has altered teaching and learning in certain ways in the modern era. One of the most widely used technology-based teaching strategies that has been overly popular in recent years is the use of digital media in English language training. Yet, anxiety is one of many emotional states that are significantly impacted by the changes in education brought about by the use of digital media and computer-based learning. Particularly, there is a gap in the literature on the level of anxiety among immigrating students planning to study abroad while trying to learn English in an EFL context. To address these, the current study was formulated to explore the effect of using digital media for language learning on reducing anxiety and boosting language proficiency of immigrant students in Iran. To suit the study objectives, a one-group pretest-posttest design was adopted and using a purposive sampling method, 12 male and female students were finally selected. Beck Anxiety Inventory and World English Placement Test were distributed among them in the pretest to determine their anxiety level, and language proficiency, respectively. A teaching protocol of 10 sessions, each lasting 90 minutes was adopted, and at the end of the experiments, the two instruments were distributed to determine the posttest scores of anxiety and language proficiency. The data were collected and transferred to SPSS Version 27 for further statistical analysis and interpretation. The results proved that the participants had sever anxiety level in the pretest, which was reduced to a significantly lower levels after using digital media for language learning. Moreover, it was found that there was a significant difference in the pretest and posttest scores of language proficiency of the immigrating students after using digital media for learning English, showing a significant improvement. Finally, it was found that there was a significant difference in the mean scores of males’ and females’ anxiety in the pretest but after the experiment, although both males and females showed significant reduction in their level of anxiety compared to the pretest, there was not a significant difference in the mean scores of the two groups. Overall, using digital media can assist in enhancing literacy skills among immigrant students in diverse aspects such as digital literacy, resulting in better literacy outcomes and further literacy development.